Chile: 2019

Susan, Lynda, Glenda, Darlene

Wet and cold is a good description of our holiday in southern Chile; it was spring, but early spring. On “good” days it sprinkled intermittently, maybe a downpour and then a light shower. On bad days it poured, rain beating down hard all day or all night or both. We were, however, in a temperate rain forest much of the time so wet is not unusual. We were able to do some hiking, but not as much as we would have liked. I traveled for about a month with my three Chile teacher friends: English Sue, Scottish Lynda, and Canadian Glenda, my good friends from the late 60’s when we taught at Santiago College, and lived and traveled together. This was our fifth trip together, our third in Chile; nine years ago we had made a similar trip. At the beginning and also at the end we stayed with our good friend Erica, from England, who lives in Santiago and was also a teacher. There were some new highways, and many sections under construction. It was fun being back and exploring both familiar and new places. We also stayed at a couple of the same hostels. We did not have a set itinerary, and more or less made it up as we went along. It was early enough in the tourist season that we didn’t have to worry about reservations; many tourist spots  were still closed. We stayed in places that provided breakfast, then made sandwiches for lunch, and in the afternoon we would open a bottle of wine before going out for dinner and then finish it off while we played a game later in the evening.

We flew south to Puerto Montt and rented a car since it’s over 1000 kilometers  (620 miles) from Santiago, and we wanted to be in the south. We put about 2500 kilometers or 1500 miles on the car. We spent a few days by Lake Llanquihue at one of our favorite hostels, Zapato Amarillo, near Puerto Octay, run by a charming Swiss couple, and then headed north on two-lane highways through mostly rolling countryside with lots of cattle, and later sheep.  We passed several large lakes on our way to make a repeat visit to Judith and Roberto who live north of Pucon. We drove through small towns with large housing developments on the hillsides, this is a new phenomena, at least before they weren’t so apparent, now these small houses are crowded together having the look of “little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same.”

We had a lovely stay with Judith and Roberto and learned all about their business of making rolls every morning to be sold at the local grocery store. We got to eat them warm every morning with a selection of Judith’s delicious fruit jams. They also raise strawberries commercially, a new enterprise, which hopefully will be very successful as the plants mature. Since it was spring, there were plenty of spring flowers: lilacs, rhododendrons, broom, gorse, notro, a red flowering tree, and the violet blossoms of the jacaranda tree. Their beautiful property high on a hill has  fruits, vegetables, and geese, ducks, chickens, turkey, and a goat. They work very hard, but obviously enjoy their work. While in the area we visited the National Park of Huerquemue where we had spectacular views of Volcano Villarica, and then  the hot springs, Los Pozoes. Another day we drove up to the pass to Argentina where we could see Volcano Larnin and many Araucanian pine trees, also called monkey puzzle trees.

Volcano Villarica

Araucanian or Monkey Puzzle Trees and Volcano Larnin

 After Pucon, we turned around and headed south again through mountains with lots of  pine trees and eucalyptus, this time to Puerto Fuy on Lake Pirehueico where we took over the hostel, each having our own room because we were the only guests. An impressive enterprising woman owned and ran the hostel. The snow-covered Volcano Choshenco loomed in the distance; we took a boat trip across the pristine lake where the tall pine trees on cliffs extended right down to the water. There were also beautiful yellow mimosa trees on the shore. There is almost no private property on the lake, and we hardly saw any buildings. We also visited the Huilo Huilo Reserve and did some hiking there. For three evenings we ate delicious lake trout.  

Volcano Choshenco

Lake Pirehueico

Then we headed south again to Puerto Montt where we would take the Austral highway south. This highway hadn’t been built the last time we were there, and lots of construction is still going on; some places warned us of potholes. The highway goes all the way south in Chile from Puerto Montt to Punta Arenas and Tierra del Fuego (2500 kilometers, over 1500 miles). We took a short ferry, then drove to Hornopirén where we ended up staying the night in a cold cabin, but after a delicious meal in a warm and cozy restaurant. Getting on the ferry the next day was going to be a matter of luck, and we had it. We were third on the wait list and we managed to squeeze on. Glenda had a long chat with two young enthusiastic French women cyclists who were going all the way south. The ferry took us half the day past mountains and fish farms in very isolated areas. Then off the ferry to wait for the next ferry. We chatted with a number of people waiting in their vehicles, ate peanuts offered by a nut salesman and tried the stalks of the giant rhubarb-like plant, gunnera.

Our white Chev just got squeezed on.

We eventually got to Puerto Gonzales where there was next to nothing and started on the gravel road which eventually became paved, to Chaiten. It was very wet with waterfalls, huge ferns, gunnera (rhubarb) and other plants. We arrived cold and damp in Chaiten and gravitated to the once elegant hotel on the main street. Chaiten is a pathetic little flat town on a gulf of the Pacific; it has the look and feel of a pioneer town. There had been a volcanic eruption in 2008 and it had taken three years for basic services to be restored. Before the eruption, 5000 people lived in the town, but now there are 3000. Because of low clouds, we never saw the volcano. The woman who owned the hotel had lived there 40 years. She was anxious to get us warmed up and brought propane stoves into our rooms. We requested hot water, but never got a consistent warm flow. She served us excellent breakfasts and made sure we had lots of food available to make lunches. We were almost the only guests in the hotel.

Chaiten

We did a hike in the rain to see a towering 4000-year-old Alerce or Patagonia Cypress tree. We also checked out part of the new Pumalín National Park that consist of more than 2 million acres (810,000 hectares) of wilderness in Chile and Argentina that Douglas Tomkins and his second wife, Kris, (North Face and Patagonia) had  bought and conserved  in the 1990’s. “They focused on park creation, wildlife recovery, ecological agriculture and activism with the goal of saving biodiversity” (Wikipedia). In 2017 the park was gifted to Chile. We also drove to an impressive suspension bridge 45 kilometers south of Chaiten. Our plan had been to keep heading south, but rain was predicted everyday and clouds covered the mountains and glaciers, so we decided to escape and take the ferry west to the island of Chiloé.

Alerce tree

On Chiloé Island we spent several days in the capital city of Castro in a crazy pink hotel with blue trim; we visited some markets and wandered in an area where the houses were on stilts called patafitos, and were even invited into a home. The tide is huge so when it is low tide it is really low and when it is high tide it’s about six meters (almost 20 feet) higher.  When we left Castro, we headed to an island where several UNESCO designated wooden churches are located. They have wooden shingles and are quite lovely. Meanwhile I continued my collection of photos of different colored and shaped shingles on houses. We eventually made it to Puerto Varas where we found a wonderful German hotel. Germans settled Southern Chile in the 1850’s, and also after the wars. Puerto Varas is very upscale with nice hotels, apartment buildings, shopping centers and a boardwalk along the lake. We were back to Lake Llanquihue, where we had started. We decided to drive to Ensenada; “a beautiful village with a lovely beach” which ended up being a string of mostly closed resorts and cabins strung out on the highway. We found a cabin near a beach and once we got it warm with the wood-burning stove, it was very pleasant, although mornings were cold until we got the stove going again.

The oldest church, Achao, 1730

Our cabin

Lake Lllanquihue

We ended up staying there five nights and had fun exploring the area, reading and playing games. There was a small hiking trail nearby that we went on several times, and walked to the beach with interesting clouds hanging over the volcanoes of Osorno and Calbuco. Early in the morning it was extremely calm and the water undulated inward, later waves would appear and often white caps. Sometimes one could see the volcanoes, other times they were enshrouded with clouds.  We took the boat trip from Petrohué to Peulla, which we had taken last time on Lake Todos Los Santos. We had seen the spectacular volcanoes then and we hoped to repeat that experience, so looking at the weather forecast, we chose the one sunny clear day we would have that week. And it was! Clear and sunny and beautiful, and we saw the three volcanoes, Osorno, Puntiaguido, and Tronador, plus other snow-capped mountains. This lake is well populated with over 100 private properties. It was used as a trade route between Agentina and Chile at the turn of the century and tourism started in 1910. It was a lovely day trip over to the hotel complex of Peulla and back.

Volcano Osorno

Volcano Puntiaguido

Another day we took the highway to Cochamó. We drove along estuary Reloncavi with many fish farms. Eleven kilometers of the road were under construction and I got to drive on the soft and muddy road with loose gravel, with not only pot holes, but signs that warned of “profound holes.” There were also dump trucks entering and exiting and other heavy construction machines on the road. The little town was calm and quiet with few people in sight. We walked around a bit, ate lunch, and then returned to Ensenada.

A couple of days later we were off to Santiago where temperatures were in the 80’s. Demonstrations in Santiago started while we were there. and elsewhere in the country; they were even occurring in the small towns that we visited.  One of the main areas of protest was near Erica’s apartment and we could hear the crowds of people and also see smoke. It became violent with vandalism, and traffic lights didn’t work so crossing the street was often a challenge. It started with a raise of subway and bus fares, but then soon extended to other injustices, low pensions, poor education, poor health service, and people were demands for a new constitution. The rich were getting richer, and the poor, poorer. I think issues were slowly getting resolved, at least there was progress in the right direction. Time will tell.

A vandalized subway entrance.

After the others left, I decided to visit the third largest city of Valparaiso, the most important port since  I hadn’t been there since 1968. It is built on steep hillsides with stairs, narrow alleyways, and elevators. I also wanted to see the famous street art. I took a free tour, just as Paula and I had done in Lisbon. It was a good tour and I also wandered on my own and saw more. I’m glad I stayed on and made the trip. I also got to visit some women that I had met the year before, friends of Erica’s, Ann and Gloria. They live in a small town Olmué in a lovely home with a beautiful garden with flowers, fruit bushes and trees, cacti, and vegetables.

Street art in Valparaiso

It was an amazing trip even though the weather wasn’t great. Progress is being made in Chile as it becomes more developed; we didn’t see oxen plowing fields, only tractors, and huasos (cowboys) on horses are now a rare sight. Women were flag persons in constructions zones. We had a good time, and met some very nice people. The best part was of course being together again, chatting and laughing and enjoying each other’s company. We enjoyed Chilean wine and some wonderful fish and seafood. Erica and her husband, Pillallo, were wonderful hosts.

Lynda, Glenda, Pillallo, Darlene, Erica, Susan